Inundación

That's right, flooding. There's a time of year (or in some locales an event) here in Alaska called "break-up", which is when all the nasty ice and snow that's left over from the winter finally melts away, or in the case of bodies of water, the ice breaks up and floats out to sea. Since we're on a river, we experience the second kind of break-up. A potential side-effect of break-up is flooding. The town is basically a marsh with high spots were the buildings are, so you can see the water level rising all over town. At present we are house-sitting for some generous friends from church (hooray for being out of the hotel!), and their house sits right on the edge of the slough, which feeds into the river. These days, though, the river is full of ice and so the water is backing up into the slough and onto the road. We're not concerned about the house itself since it sits on stilts above the hundred-year-flood mark, but the dirt road is awfully wet today, and we've been watching the slough encroach further and further into the yard. It makes for an exciting kind of anticipation.

On a more personal note, I've found something useful to do a couple of nights a week, which is good since I'm otherwise going a little batty. One of Esquire's colleagues has been studying Spanish for several years with mixed results, and he's hired me to tutor him. I'm very excited about this, because it makes me feel useful and it uses my hard-earned skill set. I just wish I'd brought some teaching materials with me instead of sticking them all in a box in our storage unit. I didn't foresee that there would be any demand for me to teach Spanish so quickly after getting up here, since my original plan was to stay home with LittleBit during the stay in Bethel and then find an adjunct position when we transfer to Anchorage or Fairbanks in a year or two or three.

Lastly, Que descanse en paz Carlos Fuentes. He was great writer and thinker and essayist and so important to 20th and 2st Century literature. He will be missed.